


Love Changes Everything

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Friendship, Humor, Post Bartlett Administration, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-03
Updated: 2009-09-03
Packaged: 2019-05-15 22:08:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14798888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of theWest Wing Fanfiction Central, a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in theannouncement post.





	Love Changes Everything

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

  
Author's notes: Spoilers through end of series; may contain spoilers for \"Holding Hands on the Way Down\"

Not mine, never were, never will be, but they consume my soul

When I started to formulate the story lines for this chapter, I had no idea how I would tie it all together. Then, last Friday night, I heard this song during the \"Celebration of Life\" for the late Ted Kennedy and I knew.

Love Changes Everything

\- Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black, Charles Hart © 1989

\"Yes, Love,

Love changes everything:

Now I tremble

At your name.

Nothing in the

World will ever

Be the same.\"  


* * *

**October 4, 2017; San Luis Obispo, CA; condominium of Derrick Reeves, 7:00 PM**

“Derrick, where’s your paprika?”

“Everything should be in the bag, Tasha. Here, let me look.”

Derrick reached into the grocery sack on the counter and rummaged through the contents. Pulling out a scrap of paper, he looked at it.

“Honey, you didn’t have paprika on the list of ingredients you gave me to buy,” he said to his kitchen companion.

“Of course it isn’t!” Natasha Montmorency exclaimed. “Paprika’s not an ingredient, it’s a staple, something you always have, like salt, or coffee, or flour.”

“I don’t have any flour. I’ll run out and get some paprika. Should I get flour also?” Derrick smiled apologetically.

“No, the halibut’s ready. It’ll dry out if we don’t eat now. It’ll just have to be – it’s well, I just wanted everything to be perfect for your parents.”

Sitting in the living room, CJ smiled to herself. Natasha might be in her late twenties and on track for tenure at Cal Poly, but Derrick was her first real romance and CJ knew exactly how the French professor felt. She looked up at her husband, who was also smiling. The two of them had been sitting there in Derrick’s living room, ever since Derrick and Natasha had refused their offer of help, listening to the sounds of two people learning to be a couple, an entity.

(“Tin foil?”

“In one of those drawers next to the dishwasher. Should I slice the tomatoes?”

“No! Just cut the tops off them; squeeze them gently to get rid of the seeds and pump, or use your finger. Just be careful not to tear into them. Where’s your potato peeler?”

“Top drawer, right. I thought we weren’t having potatoes?”

“We aren’t, it’s for the butter.”

“You’ll have to explain that to me later. I’m going to see if they need more wine.”

“Okay. And get another bottle for dinner.”)

CJ’s memories and those of her husband were not only those of five years ago, as newlyweds, but also those of the days in that little apartment in Berkeley.

“Remember when my folks came out, and how I accidently bought napkins in two different prints, three of one, one of another, at Pier One?” Paul said softly. “I thought you were going to cry.”

“Well, I was. It was traumatic enough, meeting them for the first time, hoping they would like me, wondering what Alex had told them about his visit, wondering if I had forgotten to hide anything of mine in the place, since they were staying there, using your room and all.”

“Dinner’s ready!”

Derrick and Natasha came in, each carrying two plates, which they set on the table in the dining alcove.

“There’s no salad, I hope that’s okay,” Natasha said. “Since we had all the crudités beforehand - ”. Her voice trailed off a little uncertainly.

“It’s perfectly fine, my dear,” Paul quickly reassured Natasha. “This looks marvelous!”

It did, CJ thought. She took in the plates of grilled halibut steak, with a side dollop of what appeared to be _maître d’hotel_ butter, bright green peas with sliced mushrooms and teeny pearl onions, and broiled beefsteak tomatoes that smelled of basil and garlic. “Indeed, it does,” she echoed her husband’s statement.

The Reeves men seated their ladies and Derrick poured the wine.

“If the fish doesn’t taste quite right, it’s my fault,” Derrick said. “I forgot the paprika.”

Natasha blushed and CJ knew the young woman was embarrassed that Derrick called attention to the lack.

“If it’s not good, it’s not the lack of paprika, Derrick,” Natasha said. “The paprika’s just for presentation.”

“Presentation?”

“A garnish,” CJ said, trying to smooth over any anxiety. “You put grated cheese on dark things, you put paprika on light things, parsley along side of things. Unless you’re making something German or Hungarian, like a paprikash, you really don’t use enough paprika to affect the taste.”

“It smells divine. And these plates look lovely, Natasha,” Paul added.

Derrick took a closer look at the food in front of him. The fish was covered with grill marks in an attractive criss-cross pattern and the little scoop of butter with bits of green stuff (he supposed that was the parsley – fresh, Natasha insisted –) was sitting on a dark green spinach leaf. Next to the butter were two pieces of lemon, cut in such a way that they spiraled like DNA double helix. The plate next to the basket of warm crusty French bread held at least a dozen little yellow flower-like things and Derrick realized that somehow the butter and the potato peeler produced those curls. In front of each of their plates was a tiny flameless candle and a single red carnation in a little liqueur glass. She really did go to a lot of trouble, Derrick thought to himself. He reached over to squeeze Natasha’s hand. “It’s lovely,” he told her. “Thank you.”

After dinner and dessert (individual chocolate and Grand Mariner soufflés that thankfully did not collapse until touched by spoons), Paul and Derrick shooed the women to the living room while the two of them scraped plates and loaded the dishwasher.

“Was it really good, Dad?” Derrick asked in a low voice. “You weren’t just saying that to be polite?”

“Didn’t you taste anything, boy? It was very good!”

“I guess I was too concerned about messing up the shopping list. A **garnish**!” Derrick whispered to his father. “I was feeling rotten and guilty because of **presentation**!”

“It’s important to her, son.”

“I know. She’s been a wreck all week, why, I don’t know. She’s known you and Mama for as long as she’s known me.”

“But now she knows that she’s in love with you, Derrick. And for the first time. You’ve got to reassure her not only that we, the family, will love her because we love you and you love her, but that we will love her in her own right.

“And look at you! Taking the blame because she didn't know that for a bachelor, 'staples' means salt, pepper, beer, and leftover pizza. You’re gone off the deep end; you’re also in love.”

“I’ve been in love, or at least in lust, before, Dad. Remember Edie Wilson back in ninth grade? And several times since then.”

“I know you thought you were in love, and I know that your feelings at the time were real to you, as real as Paddy’s are for little Maggie Muñoz, but this is different, and you know it, don’t you.” Paul watched Derrick’s head nod in agreement. “Wait until Thanksgiving; you’ll be the one who’s a total wreck,” Paul laughed. Derrick had already told his parents that he would be going to Arizona for the November holiday.

“I already am. Her uncle and her brother-in-law are into bowling, I mean, leagues and shirts and tournaments and all that. Do you think I should take some lessons? Or would that seem too pushy? They want me to stay at the house; should I do that or get a room?”

_**Antares (star in Scorpio)** _

“ _He’s got it bad, doesn’t he?” Leo laughed. “Ah, the joys of young love!”_

“ _Or not so young,” Danny added. “I felt the same way when I met Mitch and Randy for the first time.”_

“ _It’s as it should be,” Hugh said. “A man should be nervous about proving himself worthy of the woman he loves. And, Jem, are you ever going to hit that ball? An ant would ha’ made it to the green by now. There’s a foursome of nuns right behind us and ye know how_ _ **they**_ _can be when something gets in their way.”_

When the men returned to the living room, CJ was showing Natasha pictures of the kids from their last trip to Half Moon Bay. The pumpkin patches were just coming into their autumn glory and there were several pictures of the three kids, Jasmine, and two of Randy and Gina’s grandkids with a pumpkin so big it dwarfed everyone except Paddy and the black lab.

“So the kids are up at the winery with them?” Natasha asked.

“No; we didn’t want to take Paddy out of school. Gina and her mom came down to stay at the house. They’re going to do a day in the city, spa treatment, dinner, take in a show, Lee and Dottie – the Hitchcock’s from next door, remember them? – will watch the kids,” CJ replied. “If it weren’t harvest time, Randy would have come down with Gina.”

“I’m really grateful to them for volunteering,” Paul chimed in as he sat down next to his wife. “Not only do CJ and I get a long weekend escape, we get to spend some time with the two of you.”

The Hollis Foundation board was meeting on Thursday and Friday and with the offer of babysitting from CJ’s Napa relatives, Paul decided to reschedule his Thursday classes and come down with CJ. He would do some exploring tomorrow while CJ was in her meetings. On Thursday evening, there would be a dinner for the board, the foundation employees, and their significant others. There was a biology professor with whom Paul had worked when the two of them were in Kentucky who was now teaching at the university and Paul would be catching up with him on Friday. Bonnie and Jean-Luc had invited them to dinner on Friday night. On Saturday, the two of them, Derrick and Natasha would go to the Mustangs game in the afternoon and in the evening, he would treat his son and his almost certain daughter-in-law to be to dinner in the finest restaurant in the area (he had already arranged with the staff to finesse Derrick for the check) before the two of them drove back to Kensington on Sunday.

The four of them spent an hour or so looking at more pictures, including one from Alaska of a growing and glowing Deborah.

“She’s got about ten weeks to go. She says she wants it to be over, but she’s also a little apprehensive about the reality of being a mother. I told her it’s normal; you’re tired of being fat and cranky, but you also have this special bond with the baby while it’s just you and him, or her. And when I stop to think that three years ago, it was me pregnant with Dansha, and now I’m about to be a grandmother,” CJ laughed.

“Some of my high school classmates’ mothers were like that,” Natasha said. “Only it was because they started having kids at fifteen and then their kids did the same. I’m a Big Sister to a girl at the high school, her mom OD’ed, and her father doesn’t want Tamara making the same mistakes he and her mom did when they were kids. He keeps telling me how good I am for his daughter and begs me to stay with her, in the program.”

**October 5, 2017; 6:15 AM PDT**

CJ adjusted the covers over her husband and lightly ran a finger down the bridge of his nose. For thirty minutes she had lain awake in the bed, trying to will her body back to sleep. Now, twenty minutes before her mobile’s alarm was set to go off, she had given up the effort. Look on the bright side, she told herself. You get to sit with a cup of coffee and watch the news, or QVC if you want, in peace, without three little voices wanting “Mama!”

A few minutes later, she was in the kitchen drinking coffee and fiddling with the TV when Derrick came in. After exchanging hugs, Derrick asked CJ if she wanted breakfast.

“Well, maybe just some juice. There’s supposed to be a ‘continental breakfast’ at 8:30, but the last time, they had an enormous plate of the most sinfully irresistible pastries and croissants and this huge display of fruit cut into flowery shapes on skewers. I better save room for that.”

“If you’re sure. Natasha left some cornbread with some sort of sweet honey filling. And if I could have convinced her to stay, she would have fixed it fresh -”. Derrick stopped and blushed.

CJ smiled. It was obvious that Derrick was used to having Natasha spend the night with him. For one thing, there was the aura of intimacy that the two of them exuded in each other’s company, an aura that was not there when the two of them had been in Kensington about six weeks ago. For another, there was the box of tampons sitting comfortably next to the boxes (four, if CJ remembered correctly) of condoms in Derrick’s linen closet when she went to fetch the first-aid kit at his direction.

“Oh, Derrick, it’s so cute that you blush! Did you think that we didn’t know that you and Natasha are having sex?”

“No, but I’m not sure about things. Not her,” Derrick hastened to add, “but how to deal with this situation. And that’s a new thing for me. For example, we’ve been together every night since, well, Big Sur, even when she was, when she wasn’t able to, but all of a sudden, she gets shy about staying here while you and Dad are here.”

“It’s new, it’s special, and she doesn’t know how to be part of a couple in front of others, especially family. I remember back to that second year with your father. When your grandparents came to visit, not staying overnight was a given because they used the bedroom and he slept on the couch in the living room. But even when your uncle Alex was there, and he was on the couch, there was no way I was going to spend the night and make love to your father. There was no way I could have been comfortable.”

_**Venus (the women's place)** _

“ _It was a half-year after our wedding before I could come when we stayed with Paul’s folks,” Alicia confided to Abbey and Brianna as they stretched out in the thermal pool. Then she looked over to the table where her mother and her two grandmothers were sipping strawberry daiquiris. She lowered her voice. “And I could never come in my mother’s house. After two visits, Paul insisted that when we went to Princeton, we stay in a hotel.”_

“She’s in love with you, Derrick, and you with her. Things will never be quite the same. Love changes things; love changes everything.”

**That evening**

“ _Ma chère_ , you look _magnifique, comme toujours_!” Jean-Luc exclaimed as he kissed CJ’s cheek.

CJ and Paul had just walked into the banquet room where the Hollis Foundation dinner was to be held. Derrick was not with them, having left the condo to fetch Natasha a few minutes before they were ready to go.

“We’re at table six,” Bonnie said, checking the board.

“So are we,” Paul added.

“Good! We didn’t get much of a chance to talk today, Bonnie,” CJ said. “What with you being late for breakfast and then me getting hijacked, for all intents and purposes, by that guy from Pretoria at lunch.”

The couples found their table and took four of the eight places. Paul and Jean-Luc went off to fetch drinks. Before the men returned, they were joined by Nancy and Jesse Muñoz and Morgan Seaborn. Sam wouldn’t be able to make the dinner, Morgan told them. There was a horrible accident, a rockslide on one of the side roads off Donner Pass, and he was taking a helicopter to the scene.

“He won’t be able to help with the rescue, of course, but he wants to be there for the family members who are waiting.”

The others expressed their thoughts for a happy ending to the event and made some small talk. Derrick and Natasha stopped by on the way to their table.

“Well, would you look at that!” Bonnie suddenly exclaimed.

CJ turned away from Paul and glanced in the direction of Bonnie’s stare.

Matt Santos was coming into the room, heading for the table to their right, to join the Hollises, Glen and Ainsley Walken, and the afore-mentioned expert from Pretoria and his wife. Matt was with a lovely, tall, thin woman with blonde hair. It was Jessica. It was obvious from the way they held hands and from the way they smiled when their eyes met that this was more than a casual “escort” situation.

“You know,” Morgan said, “I thought that Matt seemed more cheery, more his old self at the sessions today, but I guess I just attributed it to the passage of time.”

“Well, apparently, it’s more than that,” CJ laughed. “Did you know anything about this, Bonnie? You’re here at the office most days.”

“Not a thing. What about you, Nancy?”

The blonde was smiling, somewhat apologetically. “She asked me not to say anything to anyone. Matt sold the place in Texas last month and the kids have started school here. The library will still be built outside Houston, although some of the brass at Annapolis did ask him if he would consider putting it on the academy grounds. Anyway, they’ve been seeing each other since May, but this is their first time ‘out in public’, so to speak.”

_**Canis Major (The meadow by Rainbow Bridge)** _

“ _I want him to be happy,” Helen Santos said, wiping away a tear. “I really do.”_

“ _I know. It does twinge just a little, and it’s okay to admit that.” Alicia put down her sketch pad, put an arm around Helen’s shoulders and squeezed. “After all, we’re still human.”_

“ _And she does look like me, doesn’t she? I suppose that’s something.”_

“ _I’m sure that had nothing to do with it, Helen.” Jem Ogilvie came up to join them. “If he’s the man I think he is, the man you talk about, he fell in love with the person, not with a replica of you.”_

“ _I agree,” Alicia echoed Jem’s statement. “The important thing is that she loves him and that she loves your kids. She’ll take good care of them.”_

“ _Yes, she will. My Jessie loves children.” A tall man in Army fatigues joined them. “I guess this sort of makes us family.” Rusty smiled at Helen. “Of course, I would have preferred it if Matt weren’t a Marine,” he laughed._

Then the three of them looked up as a beautiful Irish Setter stopped in front of them, lifted his ears, and barking joyfully, began to run toward the man who was emerging from the tunnel of light at the other end of the Bridge.

“I can see Matt with someone else,” CJ mused, “but the way Jessica always said there was no one else for her but Rusty, that she would go to her grave a widow.”

“And we both know how that can change if you leave yourself open to God,” Paul said, lifting her hand to his mouth.

Later, after dinner, CJ was returning from the bathroom when she saw Jessica by herself. Sneaking up behind the woman, CJ put her hands over Jessica’s eyes.

“Guess who?”

After exchanging hugs, CJ pressed her former neighbor for details.

“So, tell me all about it! I’m so happy for you! With Clara seeing Paul’s brother and now you and Matt, I feel like everyone’s matched up, just like a happy summer movie.”

“I really can’t pinpoint when it happened. I worked with Matt on the Philippines project, gathering the research and coordinating the meetings. I guess it started with lunches, and as we worked together, he started asking for help and advice with the kids, dealing with how they adjust to losing a parent. The lunches became dinners and plays, some dancing. Then I started doing things with him and the kids and after Berkeley let out in the spring, Cindy joined us.”

“And from here?” CJ asked.

Well, this is my year to host the adult Halloween party for the block, you guys are always welcome, you know that, and we’ll go public to everyone there. The two of us are taking an extended Thanksgiving break. I’ll go to Texas to meet his family and then we’ll go to Wisconsin.”

“And?”

“Well, he hasn’t really asked, in words of one syllable,” Jessica blushed, “but we’ve sort of talked about next May. But please don’t say a word!”

CJ couldn’t believe the change in Jessica. She had never looked her age, but as she confided in CJ, she seemed to be barely in her twenties. And while Jessica had rarely moped about Rusty, except that one time when CJ was carrying Paddy and Donna was visiting, there was always a certain quietness in her eyes, as if her mind were elsewhere. But now Jessica’s eyes sparkled like the most brilliant sapphires. Love changes everything.

“May we join you?” It was Frank and Sarita Hollis. Soon they were joined by the Muñoz’, the Fallières, and Morgan Seaborn. When Matt Santos returned to the table, there was more good-natured kidding for the latest couple.

“Where’s Paul?” Jesse asked CJ.

“I don’t know,” she replied, looking around the room. Finally, she spotted her husband. Natasha was talking with the ubiquitous guy from Pretoria and Derrick was saying something to Paul. Then CJ saw Paul start to laugh, swallow it, and smile at their son. He put his hand companionably on the young man’s shoulder and whispered something in Derrick’s ear. Derrick said something else to Paul and she heard Paul reply, “Oh, I certainly intend to!”; this time he did laugh. Derrick interrupted the other conversation, Paul lightly kissed Natasha’s cheek, and the couple made their way to the exit.

After a few minutes, Tommy Gans mercifully took the Pretoria guy off toward the bar, his booming voice exclaiming “Come on, Desmond, let’s get you some **real** bourbon”, and Paul made his way to the group. Rather than scrounge around for another chair, he helped CJ from hers and pulled her onto his lap after seating himself.

Eventually, the party broke up. The meetings on the next day would start an hour later, but people did need to get some sleep.

When CJ and Paul reached Derrick’s condo, Paul locked the door and, pulling CJ into his arms, kissed her while pushing her back toward the guest room.

“Shouldn’t we stay up until Derrick gets back?” CJ mumbled through the embraces.

“Derrick told me he would be late. I told him not to rush it and to have a good time; with any luck, he won’t be home at all,” Paul responded, reaching for the zipper at the back of CJ’s neck. “You taste good. He told me to do the same. You taste damned good.”

“Is that what the two of you were laughing about?” CJ pulled away. They had reached the room and she walked into it.

“Well, yes. What?” Paul looked a bit confused. CJ should be melting in his arms, not glaring at him.

“I guess I never thought of you comparing notes with your son, like two frat guys. I can’t imagine you ever doing that when you **were** a frat guy.”

“Sweetheart, I didn’t mean it like that.”

Her husband actually looked embarrassed. She laughed, sat down on the bed, and pulled him down beside her.

“Let me close the door. Just in case Derrick isn’t as lucky as I am.”

“And what makes you think you’re going to get lucky, Paul Reeves?” CJ teased.

“I already am, sweetheart, I already am.”

**October 6, 2017; Hollis Foundation offices; late morning**

“Morgan!” CJ exclaimed. “Come sit with me. We didn’t have much time to catch up yesterday and Bonnie said you’ll be heading back to Sacramento as soon as the last session’s over.”

“Donnie’s got a cold and Sam is still up in the Sierras. And even if he were back, Donnie’s still at the age when he really wants his Mommy.” The dark-haired first lady of California sat down next to CJ.

“I thought that they rescued everyone in the slide,” CJ said.

“They did, but Sam wants to meet with the responders and visit the two guys who are still in critical condition. He is such a good governor. I can’t believe we’re heading into the home stretch.”

“I still can’t believe he’s not running for President.”

“Not you, too, CJ. I swear Josh Lyman calls twice a week, trying to get him to change his mind. And I know Josh blames me, because one of the reasons Sam gives is that I’ve put my life, my career, on the back burner for over eight years.

“But, believe me, if Sam felt the time was right, I would be the first person to sign up. But as bad as Haffley is, Sam has concerns about running against an incumbent. And he has only the utmost respect for Lew Berryhill. Sam will probably run for Hildy Prejean’s senate seat in two years; her husband is fighting Hodgkins and she wants to be there for him.”

“So Sam won’t become a house-husband while you go bring home the bacon, as it were?” CJ laughed.

“You know, CJ, I have no problem with the choices I’ve made for Sam, for me, and the kids. I’ve done a lot for the state, and in doing it, I’ve realized that I don’t want to practice law, I want to facilitate it, expedite it. I want to set up ways for those without big bucks to have the full force of the legal profession behind their fights, big or small. It’s one of the things I’m going to pursue when we’re out of the limelight. If you had told me, ten years ago, that I would walk away from my profession in part due to a relationship with a man, I would have laughed in your face. But things change. Love changes you.”

“Love changes everything,” CJ agreed, hugging the woman with whom Sam had finally found true happiness.

**October 7, 2017; 10:30 PM**

Derrick opened the door to the condo and stepped back to let the others enter.

“May I get anyone anything? Coffee? A drink?”

“Well, son, if you have any of Aisling’s cordial and you’re willing to part with it - ”.

“Of course. By the way, have you heard from the newlyweds?”

“Not from them, but from Erin. They’re back from France, of course, and getting settled in Inverness. Ash starts working at the hospital next week, and Brian is teaching Math, but they call it ‘Maths’, to twelve year olds. He’s says it’s fitting punishments for the many sins of his youth,” CJ said with a laugh.

Derrick passed around tiny glasses of the liqueur and turned on some music. They talked of things great and small – how Paddy was adjusting to third grade and would begin altar server training after the first of the year, how Caitlin was disappointed that she couldn’t start kindergarten because her birthday was so late in the year, how Fiona and Brendan were counting down the days to the birth of their baby.

CJ decided that the cheesecake they had bought earlier in the day was calling her name; Paul heard it also and she went to get some for the two of them. (Derrick and Natasha had each had a huge dessert at the restaurant and said they were stuffed.) As she walked back to the living room, she saw that Natasha was fighting to keep her eyes open and was collapsing against Derrick’s shoulder. Paul was humming along with the CD in the changer. She could feel the contentment emanating from his body. Dinner had been excellent and they had lingered over dessert, coffee, and brandy until the wait staff showed signs of wanting to clean up and go home. There had been no fighting over the bill, just a very gracious “Thank you” from their son.

Paul started when she set down the plates and, glancing over at the younger couple, whispered that perhaps they should take their cheesecake to the bedroom. CJ agreed and the two of them said their goodnights.

A half-hour later, CJ decided that they needed another slice of cheesecake (to be used for certain amatory activities) and, putting on a robe, ventured back to the kitchen. She ran into Derrick leaving his bedroom, dressed for sleeping in a pair of pajama bottoms and carrying a blanket and a pillow. CJ’s look must have asked the question she was much too tactful to ask.

“I told her she was way too tired to go home, but she still feels a bit awkward about sleeping with me with you guys here. So I told her I’d sleep in the living room. I’ve never felt this way about someone before, Mama,” Derrick finished quietly.

“I know, and you’re exhibiting all the signs. I’m so happy for you.”

CJ reached up and kissed Derrick’s cheek and returned to the father who had formed the son.

**October 8, 2017; Noon**

CJ walked to the passenger side of the Mustang as Derrick and Paul put the suitcases in the trunk.

“You don’t want to drive, sweetheart?”

They had planned to take the coast route home, stopping in Monterey for supper, and Paul knew how much CJ liked maneuvering the convertible through the twists and turns.

“No, I’d like to watch the scenery this time. You drive.”

Derrick came up to open the door for his stepmother and helped her into the car. Then he stepped back and put his arm around Natasha while waiting for Paul to seat himself behind the wheel.

“Now drive carefully,” Derrick said laughingly, imitating the admonishing father of so many times in the past. “Get there an hour late, but get there safely.”

Paul pointed the car in the direction of Rte 1, Morro Bay, and the coast. Once on a relative straightaway, he took his right hand off the steering wheel and grasped CJ’s left one.

CJ smiled and squeezed the hand holding hers. Five years ago, she could never have imagined herself willingly giving up the driver’s side of the Mustang. She leaned over as far as the shoulder harness would permit; with her height, she was able to lay her head on Paul’s shoulder. He let go of her hand and put his arm around her shoulders. Later, when the road hugged the coastline, he would need both hands on the wheel, but for now, she reveled in the security of his casual embrace.

Love had changed her; it had changed them both.

And CJ was glad.

 


End file.
